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Hey everyone,
Today, we’ve released an update that addresses more of the bugs you've reported to us. That includes tackling some of the larger reported issues like the overabundance of elites. Full notes are here . In addition to that update, we’d like to share our more wholistic plans for Seekers of the Storm. Our ultimate goal is to build Seekers of the Storm into something that can be celebrated by the community for years to come.
Over the next few months, significant changes will come to Seekers of the Storm. The updates that we’re exploring are expansive, so they won’t happen overnight. But the scope of the changes should underline the seriousness we’re approaching this challenge with.
We’ve divided the updates into three release phases:
Phase 1: Items & Elites
Phase 2: The False Son Boss Fight
Phase 3: Survivors
Some content, people already love. Stages, Survivor Skins, and Sale Star are all parts our team is particularly proud of. So, beyond bug fixes, those will remain largely unchanged. The rest of Seekers of the Storm is where we’re focusing.
The feedback that everyone has sent in so far has been a huge help. It’s already shaping the coming design updates and is helping us get a better grasp of the bugs we’re still facing. The fact that so many of you have reached out with thoughtful ideas has been humbling. As we move through these phases, please continue sending us your feedback. The best places for that are the Risk of Rain Discord, or our official support website.
As more feedback comes in, everything is subject to change. We want this to be a collaborative effort that you’re all part of. So, while the changes we’ll lay out are the improvements we’re planning right now, those plans may change in service of making more polished content.
With that, let’s take a second to look at each phase more closely.
Phase 1: Items & Elites
With the exception of Sale Star, all of the new items are being changed. In some cases, like with Sonorous Whispers, the items could simply use a tweak or a rebalance. For others, the uses were more limited...
...so, they have been completely redesigned.
Overall, our goal is to:
- Redesign the items to feel more transformational
- Make the new items fit into the existing build synergies better
- Make some particularly weak items more powerful
- Re-establish a better balance within the item pool between defensive, movement, and damage items
- With the elites, the planned changes are every bit as significant.
Twisted Elites:
These could offer a lot more room for counterplay. Depending on the items you randomly receive on a run, it’s possible that you’re guaranteed to die if a Twisted Elite spawns. Risk of Rain 2 can be punishing. But when it is punishing, it should always be in ways that feel fair and provide space for players to overcome those challenges.
The core principle of encouraging players to focus fire a single monster is still really compelling. So, we’re rebuilding Twisted Elites to give players a chance to dodge that incoming damage.
Gilded Elites:
These things are, quite healthy 👀. When a Gilded Wisp decides to float over to you, it tends to just hang out stealing your gold while you go on a marathon to take it out.
The changes we’re working on will retain the ‘gold stealing’ mechanic of the Gilded Elites. But in ways that are more interesting and that provide space for counterplay. Their health multiplier is also being knocked down a few pegs.
Phase 2: The False Son Boss Fight
As we get closer to phases 2 and 3, we’ll have more details on our specific plans. For now, we just want to ensure you have an overview of our thinking.
Here’s our focus with the Boss Fight:
- Make boss abilities more clear & fair
- Prevent The False Son from attacking through obstacles
- Move the locations of pillars for better blocking and coverage
- Reign in some of the ancillary damage sources (like the number of Golems & lightning strikes)
- Rebalance the overall encounter, including damage & swapping flat armor for adaptive
We’re also planning on some changes to both Scorch Worm and Halcyonite during this roadmap phase. We’ll have more details as we get closer.
Phase 3: Survivors
All three Survivors will see large improvements; but Chef is getting a lot of attention.
Chef:
Chef could be a lot more powerful and also feel more streamlined. So, while we’re rebuilding his kit to be more elegant, we also want to buff him overall.
All of Chef's abilities are being revisited but the two that stick out most are Chef's primary & secondary (Dice & Sear). With Dice, we want to allow players to throw cleavers with reckless abandon, like Chefs of yore. With Sear, we’re making the ability more agile so you can quickly use it and move on with your culinary adventures.
The False Son:
The False Son should feel like an unhinged construct creation. After all, that’s just who he is. But there’s still room for polish. On top of cleaning up the overall kit, we want to make a handful of design improvements.
All his abilities are changing, but a lot of focus will be on making Lunar Spikes and Laser of the Father feel more impactful. We’ll have more details as we get closer.
Seeker:
Among the three, Seeker seems to be a clear favorite. So, while she’s receiving some changes, they’re more targeted than the other Survivors. Overall, we want to increase the value of her Tranquility stacks. Each one should be impactful.
We’re also keen on adapting the resurrection capability she delivers in multiplayer for singleplayer. We’ll let the team keep making improvements as we go through these phases and give you more details later.
Those are all the details we have for you today! This is a huge undertaking, but one that the team is excited about. We also want to thank everyone for giving us time to put together a wholistic plan. We know that you're eager to see what’s in store and we can’t wait for you to jump in. In the meantime, today’s bug fixes are live for PC! It will be rolling out to consoles in the coming week as they become available. You can find the update notes here.
Until next time,
The Risk of Rain Team